Hollywood Capers

Jack King's 'Hollywood Capers' is a very early Looney Tune which stars several of the characters who were introduced as potential new stars in earlier short 'I Haven't Got a Hat'. The character that finally became a star from that cartoon was Porky Pig but he does not feature here. Instead, 'Hollywood Capers' gives top billing to Beans, a mischievous cat. It also features cameos from Oliver Owl, Little Kitty and teacher Miss Cud. 'Hollywood Capers' is convincing evidence as to why none of these characters caught on with audiences. They are cute but largely devoid of personality and the times when 'Hollywood Capers' comes to life are when they are not on screen. There are a couple of fun but ever-so brief skits with caricatures of W.C. Fields and Charlie Chaplin at the beginning of the short and when Frankenstein's monster enters the narrative he gets to perform a camera-eating and self-repairing routine which is the highlight of the cartoon. Unfortunately, Beans keeps coming back with limp antics which give the cartoon a stilted feel. Conceived as a possible replacement for the lacklustre Buddy (Warner Bros' previous attempt at creating a star, many of whose cartoons were also directed by King), Beans was not much of an improvement. While it's not especially funny, 'Hollywood Capers' is a fascinating artefact in which some early characters are auditioned but ultimately lose out to a stuttering pig who had the good sense to opt out of this particular film!

Despite the best efforts of the security guard, "Beans" - one of the "Boston Beans" don't you know, manages to smuggle himself into the Warner Bros. Set disguised as Oliver Hardy and to gatecrash a film shoot (which might well have been the best thing that could have happened to it!). With the ambidextrous turtle providing the soundtrack, "Beans" is soon causing chaos and gets chucked out - only to find himself on one of James Whale's fully plugged in Frankenstein sets! Even more mayhem now ensues as the monster wakes up and runs riot. Somehow "Beans" has to put things right whilst there's still studio left standing. It's quite good fun, this animation, with plenty going on and a bit of insider Hollywood humour to keep it a bit different.

While the Looney Tunes unit at Warner Brothers made the best and most enjoyable shorts of the 1940s and 50s, during the 1930s they were in search of an identity and tried out many different forgettable characters. Bosco came and went as did Beans, the cat star of "Hollywood Capers". The biggest reason these characters didn't do very well was that they were very forgettable and lacked the edge characters like Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny had. When you see "Hollywood Capers", you'll see what I mean in regard to Beans.

The story starts off much like the brilliant "Autograph Hound" from Disney (starring Donald Duck). Both he and Beans are trying to sneak into a film studio to get some autographs. But unlike Donald, Beans does make it into the lot...but once he's there, he totally forgets why he came there in the first place. And, there's a gruesome battle with a robotic Frankenstein at the end that just seemed out of place. Overall, a big disappointment as you only see three stars of the day parodied (four if you count when Beans dresses like Oliver Hardy)...including Chaplin and W.C. Fields.

By the way, in some of the Beans cartoons (such as this one), Beans was voiced by Tommy Bond...the kid who played the bully in the Little Rascals shorts of the late 1930s. When it wasn't Bond, Billy Bletcher (who voiced Pete in Disney films and Barney Bear for MGM) was Beans' voice.

Some naive critics have often dismissed Beans as a character with little (or perhaps having no) personality. I wonder if they know what they're saying? If you were to ask me to describe Beans in one way, I'll give you four. These words are: adventurous, feisty, full of enthusiasm, and never giving up during struggles. And if there's anything that has no personality whatsoever, it's a lifeless mannequin.

I must admit Porky's speaking difficulty is very distinguishing, and therefore becomes a trademark of that character. Well it should be understood that this trait of his nothing new even to animated films of its time. In a 1932 Krazy Kat short called Seeing Stars, there's an announcer who speaks in a similar fashion.

The film of Hollywood Capers demonstrates the value of persistence. Although our hero, Beans, gets rejected and thrown out from entering the studio, it didn't stop him from trying get inside which he did successfully. He even shows it again when he takes on the Frankenstein monster.

Jack King's "Hollywood Capers" came out during the first year in which Warner Bros. animation really had the recognition that it has had ever since. Featuring many of the characters from "I Haven't Got a Hat", it portrays simple-minded feline Beans getting to Warmer (yes, in this case it's Warmer, not Warner) Bros. studios, only to cause a series of problems, culminating in Frankenstein's monster coming to life.

The cartoon has a very simple story - as did most of their cartoons during the animation department's early years - but comes up with some really crazy sight gags, namely Frankie's meal; no live action film, no matter how silly, could ever show that! So, it's far from a great cartoon, but an eye-opening look into the early days of what would soon be the domain of Bugs, Daffy, etc. And it's a neat jab at Hollywood. Speaking of which, why does no one rip at Hollywood more than Hollywood itself?